State's SBIR grant match helps Mt. Pleasant online training start-up

When the state announced a program to match federal research grants a few months back, companies like DCM Associates L.L.C. were pretty much exactly what they had in mind.

DCM is developing online training courses that teach transportation workers how to handle hazardous materials. And it's creating tech jobs in Mt. Pleasant.

Company founder Deborah Marmarelli that back when she got a Masters degree in computer science from Central Michigan University in 1985, "I thought it would get me a computer job in Mt. Pleasant, but there weren't any." So she went to work for Dow Corning Corp. down US-10 in Midland, where she stayed 13 years. Then she shifted to a consulting company job on assignment at Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, where she helped design online learning for Dow's corporate university.

A course in training hazardous materials drivers got immediate attention from Dow competitors like BASF, and that's when Marmarelli started thinking there might be a business here.

DCM was incorporated in 2002 and started business development efforts in 2003. The company was also the North Region New Business Idea winner in last December's Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest, and a state finalist in the business plan competition.

Most recently, DCM won a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety, to develop online hazardous materials training for the trucking industry. That's where the state chipped in an additional $15,000, under a program under the state's Technology Tri-Corridor designed to match SBIR grants. 

Winning the Phase I grant makes DCM eligible for a Phase II grant of up to $750,000. Marmarelli said a Phase II grant would be used to develop similar online courses for marine, air and rail transportation, as well as international transportation and the special requirements of transporting nuclear material.

The company is so young it does not yet have a Web site. But it does have six part-time employees and plans for an office in Central Michigan University's Center for Applied Research & Technology. DCM's business plan calls for six full-time jobs next year and 20 by 2006.

"It's great for me to be able to bring some tech jobs to Mt. Pleasant," Marmarelli said.

Marmarelli also praised the work of Ann Arbor-based Biotechnology Business Consultants L.L.C., which she said was "very helpful" in teaching her the ins and outs of applying for an SBIR grant.

For more about the state's SBIR matching program, called the SBIR Emerging Business Fund, or to submit an application electronically, visit the Technology Tri-Corridor Web site at www.medc.michigan.org/ttc.

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